A previous method and apparatus for harvesting of backmeat of a carcass or carcass part of slaughtered poultry is indicated in U.S. Pat. No. 7,344,437.
According to the prior art, the known method and apparatus are embodied such that first of all two long incisions are made in the backmeat, substantially parallel to and on either side of the backbone. These incisions can be made, for example, using rotating blades. When making these incisions, it is preferable to prevent bone parts of the body of the carcass part from being touched by the blades because such would result in undesirable bone splinters in the meat.
The method and apparatus according to the prior art is disadvantageous in that it requires incisions to be made prior to the filleting of the carcass or carcass part, which is cumbersome and leads to higher processing costs. Furthermore, an even more serious disadvantage is that due to variations in the dimensions of the carcass or carcass parts, the operation of the rotating blades cannot be performed sufficiently accurate to ensure that bone splinters can always be avoided. This has a detrimental effect on the quality and value of the meat that is harvested with the method and apparatus known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,344,437.
It is an object of the invention to improve the methods and apparatus that is known from the prior art, to simplify the harvesting of backmeat of poultry, to reduce costs in the harvesting of the backmeat, and to increase the quality of the harvested meat.
These and other objects of the invention, which may become apparent from the following disclosure, are at least in part attained with the method and apparatus according to one or more of the appended claims.